In serving with Evergreen SGV for these past of three years I had the opportunity to the in’s and outs of how this ministry works. Then even going to this church most of my life has given me a greater perspective on the church family here and its strengths and weaknesses. I have had the opportunity to talk to some of the congregation, especially who are new to our church family and those who were church hopping and decided to settle in here at Evergreen SGV. This is by no means a way to make my church look like a perfect church because we are not simply because we are humans who run the church and we are fallen and broken and will make mistakes. But the strengths we present are good ones and ones I find are hard to find at other churches. One of the greatest strengths we find here at Evergreen SGV has to be transparency throughout all of the leadership. This goes all away from Pastor Cory, our senior pastor, all the way down to the volunteer leaders. The way it is shown throughout the staff here is in our Monday morning meetings. This is a time where we, as a staff, gather and pray for our church family and it is also a time to talk about how we …show more content…
as a staff are doing personally first then in out ministries. It a time to be vulnerable in front of each other. This is a way for us to be transparent with each other here on staff and one of the ways the staff is transparent to all of the church family is through the church membership meetings we have about 4 times a year where we inform all of the congregation on how we spend each and every dollar. This kind of transparency is what has allowed evergreen to flourish as much as we have because there are no hidden doors or alleyways and since it’s like this it makes it easy to trust the leadership. Going right along with transparency is longevity, that most churches the average pastor will stay for about three or four years before moving on. Here at Evergreen most of the pastors have been with the church most of their life before becoming a pastor. And since coming on board most of them with a church 10 plus years. This adds to the trustworthiness of the staff because as I had previously mentioned in my journals all the people on staff are people I grew up looking up to, these are people who were my leaders. Having longevity in staff is due to their hiring policy which is a double edge sword I believe. They will only hire a pastor from within the congregation. Which puts a heavy emphasis on discipleship so that they can raise up future leaders. One last point on evergreen’s strengths before I transfer to weaknesses, is how safe evergreen has always been known to be. This is especially true and the youth department if you to look at most youth programs in churches I would say the staff is pretty rambunctious and the games are really out there that’s so this usually comes with children getting hurt a little bit more often the navy the games are a lot more “fun” and physical. But here at evergreen were actually known for being a pretty safe church at least within the past five years no one has had to go to the hospital during any youth event it could be longer since we’ve had an issue but this is only according to my knowledge. But this is one of those things where I could see it as a double edge sword where it could be really good at Evergreen is a safe place but then again it could be a weakness where maybe we play it too safe And we don’t give the kids a chance to really stretch their legs. I personally believe one of our churches motto is “better safe than sorry” which is not a bad thing it just on its us and some of the things that we can do. Although very recently we’ve had a minor change in this where we’ve been a little bit more crazy or rambunctious as some would say and we did have a laser tag group come and set up for our All church conference. Which is as crazy as Evergreen has ever been. As we make our way to the weakness of Evergreen and specifically the youth this is hard for me to talk about because this is a program that I went through as a kid and have been serving in for almost 3 years now and to admit anything is wrong, for me, is to say I haven’t been serving my students as best as I could. But I also see this as an opportunity for me to assess the current state of our program and see how we can best improve it. One of the ways, especially with the youth program, that I see Evergreen has a hard time with is conveying to their volunteers exactly how much money they have to work with in order to use it for ministry purposes. As someone who has the opportunity to disciple to a few kids within the youth program I’ve taken kids out for lunch and snacks, yes they do tell us to keep our receipts and they will reimburse us for the outing. It wasn’t until I became an intern that I was able to see the actual numbers of how much the money the junior high ministry has allotted. It wasn’t until I became an intern that I became informed about the junior high ministries budget. Open communication about money and budgets between the youth pastor and his volunteers I feel is crucial so that they know exactly how much money they can spend. As a volunteer it becomes very frustrating when you don’t have the numbers to help the children do what they want to. We have kids who are crying out to be discipled and we just don’t have the numbers as a volunteer stuff, although we are in recruitment mode at this point it would be almost 8 to 9 kids for every male staffer and 13 to 15 students for every female. The reason for the lack of volunteers stems from having a weak college ministry, most of the volunteers attended the college group back when evergreen had one and now that evergreen doesn’t have one or at least a very prominent one the lack of volunteers to help out and use ministry is really apparent. We had a new hire for outreach pastor/college pastor and he, now, has in the process of rebuilding the college ministry to its former Glory. The process of rebuilding the college ministry to feed you back into the church will take about three years to build. Although this turnaround doesn’t look very promising for the youth for the need of volunteers because then need is now. The last big thing that I see as a potential weakness not even just within the youth but as Evergreen, the church as a whole is how we are independent of other churches. Unless we have personally planted or had our hand in the growth of a certain church we usually when a partner with them. Being on staff and as an intern now I see why we distance ourselves from a lot of other churches and it’s purely out of defending the gospel, but it also makes us look over conservative, which in of itself is not a bad thing but it does make us very isolated from other churches. The thing I appreciate most about evergreen is that it’s a self-renewing community and we also bring others into this fold. One of the visions I’ve seen of the staff is to see how these young children become teenagers from teenagers they go on to go to college, those who stay close by we want to keep here at evergreen so they can have two years in a college group maybe three then they can go on to volunteer at one of the ministries. Ideally in a five year plan I would love to see the college ministry begin to rise and flourish again. This in turn would be to these and adults being equipped to serve their home church. It then becomes a cycle as these young adults mentor and rise up the next generation and next generation takes over and the cycle continues. This is one of the ways God has been faithful to Evergreen SGV.
By constantly rising up leaders within the congregation not only to lead branches but to leave ministries their leaders for training the leaders. We’ve seen junior high students start clubs at their schools that exists all today the club has been around for 10 plus years now. We have seen our students go on to serve with those who disciple them, they serve alongside their advisors. Evergreen is definitely a generational church, where we see people who are 20 year old serving alongside those were 50, 60 and even 80. And they are teaching one another. As I said earlier I know that my church isn’t perfect but I think it is a really good model of what it means to be servant leaders, I think it’s a good example of leadership training the
flock.
McIntosh desires that There’s Hope for Your Church would be used as reference guide for pastors and leaders who do not have anyone to coach them through the steps of revitalization. McIntosh clearly states, “As you consider the future of your
After seeing though the eyes of my pastor I’ve come to realize the importance of faith and committing to one’s beliefs. Returning to church after two massive losses has helped my mother in many ways and it has also taught me as a young man how small things that I could do would turn to have a big impact on someone’s life the same way my pastor impacted my life and the life of my siblings.
Transformational leadership also integrates well with a biblical worldview because both advocate valuing followers as well as leaders, the importance of ethical behavior, the need to forgive and learn from mistakes, and the value of a high moral example. Kouzes and Posner advocate leaders having a “moral authority to lead” (2007, p. 41), practicing personal accountability and working to improve all aspects of their follower’s lives. This others-centered leadership approach fits well in the Christ centered atmosphere of a Christian school.
Toward the end of his book, Hunter shares a phrase with a similar intent of the four domains of Blanchard and Hodges. He writes: “Thoughts become actions, actions become habits, habits become our character, and our character becomes our destiny.” (Hunter, 1998, p. 167). With this quote in mind, Hunter affirms Blanchard and Hodges’s perspective of servant leadership. Both authors concur that by centering one’s life on the love of Jesus Christ, servant leadership will come naturally. When a leader puts their own selfish needs aside and places their trust in God, they will be empowered to spread Christ’s light to all those they meet. Leading in this way mirrors the way Jesus led because it calls for service as a way of
Martins Luther’s vision for a future church where the bible was the standard for truth was blocked time and time again by bureaucracies within the church. Martin’s vision enabled him to lead the people through every huddle along the way. Luther’s use of influence changed the way I look at how I lead and influence others. How many times in the past did I face hurdles and gave up quickly. I must convey a vision for the future, one that will inspire my members to perceive a need for change. Therefore, I must use transformational leadership tools like “Idealized influence” and exhibit moral behavior to do the right thing to ensure I move my airmen from our current state to a better future state. Additionally, I need to use cognitive flexibility to incorporate different thinking strategies to “develop plans for different situations to be able to respond to change” (Crs 14 v6, LM06-2SG - 5). When I face hurdles, I must have many strategies to ensure my airmen will be able to get around obstacles to see the vision through. Furthermore, Martin Luther was so concerned for the truth and for the people of the Church that he was willing to risk his life for it. Though I most likely won’t have to risk my life, I must demonstrate ethical leadership by standing up for what is right. Status quo is the easy route for most leaders, but doing what is right sometimes comes with risk. Ethical traps like worry over image, loyalty syndrome, and ethical relativism can get into way (Crs 14 V6 LM01SG – 6). If I let my personal faith bias or worry over what people might think of me when doing what is right, then I will likely do nothing to bring about change. Additionally, Martin Luther had to rectify his vision against the bible to discern truth from a lie during his ethical dilemma to do what was right. Being a military leader, when I am faced with an ethical dilemma, I have to go to
With that said, the time has come at OGBC to manage the inevitable transition of welcoming a new pastor. The researcher is an associate minister at OGBC and recognized the need for developing a transition plan to help her church to transition well. Transition is the process of letting go of the ways things used to be and then holding on of the way they subsequently become. William Bridges identifies a place in between the transition process called the “neutral zone”. Bridges suggests that while in the neutral zone people resist the transition because it takes longer (often much longer) than change, and it leaves us in this zone while a replacement reality and a new reality is gradually being formed. The researcher’s church was in the neutral zone for three years until they finally selected a new pastor. The time has come for OGBC to let go of the way things used to be and take hold of the way things have become and then move forward with their new pastor embracing the process for a healthy pastoral transition. Transition is the way that we all come to terms with change. The pastoral transition process does not have to be chaotic thus, this project is develop in the anticipation to make the way smoother for
As a second language learner I have never expected myself to be a perfect writer throughout the semester. Even If English was my first language still, I would not be a perfect writer. It is not about first or second language, it is about how well I understand the learning objectives. Then organizing and writing with my own ideas and putting them in my paper. I am going to be honest, I am not good at English subject and English subject is my strongest weakness than the other subjects. In this paper I will discuss and analyze my own writing, reflecting on the ways that my writing has improved throughout the semester.
“Reaching Out without Dumbing Down” seems to be constructed for the church leader, elder, or pastor who is considering altering their current, historic worship style for a more modern one that may attract greater numbers of unsaved people. She provides excellent standards to help Pastors and Worship Leaders plan, execute, and evaluate worship services. These same standards provide a great opportunity to educate the church family on the reasons behind the use of certain worship elements. Although written for church leadership, the everyday church member would also benefit from understanding the very concepts that Dawn is directing at God-empowered leaders.
The first goal of this project will be to assess the current leadership and their passion for the spiritual disciplines at Progressive Missionary Baptist Church. This goal will be measured by administering the Bible Reading Record Document and the Joseph Hall method meditation (BRD and JHMM) to a group of 10 to 15 leaders. The goal will be considered successfully met when the group of leaders clearly demonstrates a deeper passion for exercising spiritual
Sometimes, we faith followers make jokes about shame in our religions. Shame in the church is a common experience for many church members. Though, not every church has this sort of approach in discipleship and behavioral training. Shame has long been a pronounced interest to me. Most church leaders want the church to be a place of hope and inspiration, but some of us have experienced a tremendous amount of shame, also. Growing up within a very conservative John Wesley style holiness church taught me some life-giving valuable faith lessons. We were taught incredible lessons of living one?s life in a way that reflects one?s values and belief system and being empowered to express such values to others. Great lessons in humility and giving all glory to God abound. The church taught a person is best when honoring a holy lifestyle as best able on Earth, including prayer,
Young, D. S. (1999). Servant Leadership for Church Renewal: Sheperds By the Living Springs. Scottdale: Herald Press.
Failing ministries have become a major factor in the shutting down of churches. Failing ministries become an outcome of poor planning and judgment on ministry leaders. There are several problems that occur when people start ministries. Poor planning, not allowing the congregation to be involved, and not differentiating are three common ways that ministries fail. Some of these are caused because of poor ministry leaders underestimating the task of starting ministries. Many of these ministry setbacks can be averted by knowing a few key steps to create growing and God honoring ministries.
Dr. Willis M. Watt authored this article on Relational Principles for Effective Church Leadership. He explained 8 different principles that lead to a person having a effective relational ministry. The first principle was mission and how a Church leader should be able to rally people together to go on mission. He stated, “Future church leaders must be able to unite everyone in the same direction.” His Second Principle was Conflict Management and how a leader should be careful how they use their power of influence to effect conflict resolution. The third principle was power and influence, here Watt explained that true relational power is given by those who are being led. Fourthly, he introduced
“Everyone – pastors, laypeople, conference ministers, the whole congregation” must feel the presence of God in their life. If you do not have the sense that God is active in your life, it will be very difficult to share that with others. The second key Reese addresses is that all people “must be focused, minds engaged and open to see patterns, details, opportunities, changes and miracles.” People then must know what their roles are. People will have different gifts to share, however, “all faith, all reality, all love and any real movement comes from
My parents arrived in the United States hoping for a better future not for themselves, but for the baby they carried in their arms. We would often move from relatives ' houses since my parents couldn’t afford renting an apartment themselves. We were fortunate enough to have caring relatives who didn 't mind us living with them since they knew the hardships we were going through. I grew up in a household where only Spanish was spoken given that both my parents didn’t speak any English at all. When I was in kindergarten, my teacher was afraid that I would be behind the rest of my classmates, given that I only spoke Spanish fluently. I was fortunate to receive free tutoring from my kindergarten teacher. We would often read books together until